After that, following the merchant caravan, Duanmu Huai and his group arrived at Carcassonne, the central city of Bretonnia—said to be blessed by the Lady of the Lake.
This city embodied the perfect medieval aesthetic: white stone walls, conical towers, vivid red banners fluttering in the wind, and knights clad in full plate armor riding majestic warhorses.
Hmm, no wonder the forums said Bretonnia perfectly captured every fantasy people had about medieval knights. Looking at it now, it really did seem like an idyllic realm.
Thanks to the presence of the merchant caravan from the Sword in the Lake Trading Company, Duanmu Huai and the others didn't encounter much resistance upon entering the city and soon arrived at the company's headquarters. As for the idiot knight, his father apologized to Duanmu Huai for his son's reckless behavior and expressed willingness to offer help.
In the end, Christine and Alisa successfully acquired a shop from the Sword in the Lake Company, planning to sell decorative accessories—being nobles, their taste and eye for such things were more than adequate.
The old knight Cardo decided to stay and continue serving the two ladies loyally as a retainer, while the elven scout also chose to remain—after all, as a royal spy, she no longer had a master, nor anywhere else to go.
The only ones preparing to leave were Duanmu Huai and Olgis.
"You're really leaving, Lord Black Knight? Sister Olgis?"
Alisa looked at them with teary eyes, full of reluctance. Ever since she narrowly escaped death, Duanmu Huai and Olgis had been by her and Christine's side. If it weren't for those two, they never could have fled the Empire and arrived safely in Bretonnia.
"Of course, Alisa. We still have our own mission to finish."
Duanmu Huai reached out and gently patted Alisa's head. Escorting her all the way to Bretonnia had been a way to repay her—after all, she had decisively handed over the relic to him without hesitation, and Duanmu Huai would never have abandoned her and Christine after that. But his journey didn't end here. That relic was only one of several he had to recover. According to his memories, the other relics were currently held by the three remaining emperors within the Empire. Since the Water God's Gift possessed by Alisa had turned out to be a relic, the odds were high that the other three were as well.
But taking the relics from their hands definitely wouldn't be as peaceful as it had been with Alisa.
Apart from that, Duanmu Huai's most pressing task was to continue searching for ruins to expand his collection of soul cards. Right now, the [Doll Deck] he used was falling behind in raw attack power—only Olgis could still hold the field. The [Necromancer Deck] could be used occasionally, but it wasn't suitable for public display. Combined with his outfit and overall aura, it would only arouse suspicion.
So next, Duanmu Huai's objective was to first increase the number of usable soul cards, then go looking for relics outside the Empire—the current chaos within the Empire was something he had no interest in getting involved with. Duanmu Huai planned to acquire one more relic, then unlock the [Inquisition Archives], analyze the [Antimatter Energy Core], and build an entirely new energy reactor. After that, he'd finally be able to power the space station.
And then… justice would descend from the heavens.
By that point, no matter how chaotic the Empire became, it would only take a single blast to flatten it.
"Truly, thank you, Sir Knight."
Christine also gave Duanmu Huai a respectful bow.
"If it weren't for you and Miss Olgis, we wouldn't have been able to escape the Empire and come this far. We can't even begin to repay such a huge favor…"
"There's no need for repayment."
Duanmu Huai waved his hand dismissively.
"Alisa gave me the Water God's Gift. In return, I got you all out of the Empire. It was just a transaction, so there's no need to take it too much to heart. Now then…"
He turned to look at the elven scout.
"I'm leaving this place in your hands. After all, while we shouldn't harm others, we must always be on guard. People on the outside may sing praises about Bretonnia, but who knows what it's really like on the inside."
"I'll do my best. This isn't the Empire, and there's only so much I can do."
The elven scout nodded. At this point, she was basically in the same boat as the rest of them. And she agreed with Duanmu Huai's view—though Bretonnia appeared to be a poetic, pastoral realm, as a scout and former royal spy, she didn't believe for a second that such a naïvely sweet place could exist. So she also planned to investigate quietly. Even if she didn't stir up trouble, she certainly wasn't going to let herself get screwed over without knowing why.
Once everything was explained, the group fell silent for a moment. Truth be told, they hadn't spent that long together, but after everything they'd gone through while fleeing, they had grown used to being around each other. Now that they were suddenly parting ways, it was hard not to feel a little reluctant.
"…Well, guess that's it then."
In the end, Duanmu Huai was the one who spoke first, while Alisa stared at him with teary eyes.
"Lord Black Knight, will you come back to see us someday?"
"Of course. If I have the time, I'll come visit you."
Duanmu Huai wasn't just brushing her off—now that he had activated the teleport beacon, he could easily leave one here and shuttle back and forth as he pleased. This planet was just a primitive civilization world, with no void shields to interfere. With the [Strategic Command Center] unlocked, Duanmu Huai could teleport anywhere he liked. If this hadn't been an escort mission, he could've blinked and instantly arrived in Bretonnia, sparing himself all the wasted time.
Besides, Alisa was the first person he had met after crossing over—she was cute and obedient, so Duanmu Huai naturally held a certain fondness for her.
However, he had no intention of getting too close.
Most Inquisitors tended to keep a healthy distance from local natives to avoid troublesome complications. If they got too involved with certain individuals, it might draw the attention of the Chaos Gods. Granted, Duanmu Huai didn't have much clout in the Warp just yet—but given what he planned to do in the future, ending up on their radar was pretty much inevitable.
And once that happened, knowing how petty the Chaos Gods were, if they noticed he had close ties with Alisa and the others, it was practically guaranteed they'd make trouble for them.
That was also why he warned the elven scout—because Duanmu Huai held a strong wariness toward the Lady of the Lake.
In this world, many things that appeared "good" on the surface were anything but.
He had seen something like this in the game before. Back then, a certain planet had fallen into disaster. Radical cultists attempted to seize control and spread the glory of their god across the entire world. The planet descended into chaos. But at that moment, a "saintess" emerged, rallying a resistance to fight off the radicals. Even some Inquisitor players joined in, and together, they successfully defeated the radicals and restored peace. A heartwarming victory, seemingly worth celebrating.
However, just as everyone was rejoicing, a High Inquisitor player descended from orbit and, under the charge of spreading heretical doctrine, arrested the saintess on the spot.
At the time, his actions confused not just the planet's inhabitants but even many fellow Inquisitor players. No one could understand what he was doing. But the High Inquisitor ignored all criticism, publicly sentenced the saintess to burning at the stake, and sent her remains to the local Ecclesiarchy to wrap up the matter.
Unsurprisingly, this player was branded as an enemy by the planet's populace, and even many other players thought he had lost his mind.
But later, a few players who enjoyed digging deep investigated what had really happened—and were stunned by what they uncovered. Everything that had occurred on that planet had been one giant farce. Both the radicals and the saintess's faction were nothing more than pawns of Tzeentch, the Chaos God of Deceit. The entire war had been staged for his amusement.
If the radicals had won, the planet would have fallen to Tzeentch.
If the saintess had won, everyone would have followed her guidance… and still become Tzeentch's followers.
Heads or tails, Tzeentch won either way—double victory, absolutely cracked.
So that High Inquisitor took the most direct, no-nonsense approach—"Win? WIN YOUR DAMN SELF! I'm flipping the whole table!" Burn them all, leave no one alive! If I can't win, then neither can you—let's all go down together and call it even.
It was from that point on that players began to keep their distance when dealing with planetary natives. Trust was always conditional.
Because you could never be sure if someone truly believed what they were saying, or if they were simply acting under the influence of a Chaos God. In fact, many didn't even realize they were being manipulated. In situations like that, all kinds of unexpected problems could arise—which meant unlucky players weren't rare.
That's why, in the game, every class tended to trust only what was under their direct control.
For example, Astartes trusted their gene-seed battle brothers.
Tech-priests trusted the servo constructs they built themselves.
And Psykers trusted their [Soul Cards].
Among them, Psykers had it best—because their Soul Cards not only featured cute girls, but also adorable fuzzy creatures, making them excellent for emotional support. Some female players even redesigned their bases to look like full-on petting zoos, filled with magical critters and playful spirits flying around—totally therapeutic.
Compare that to the Tech-priests and Astartes. One's surrounded by cybernetic grafted machines, the other's elbow-deep in muscle-bound bros. Unless your hobbies were seriously questionable, how could anyone bond with that without raising some concerns?
So yeah, the "magic class" was always king—no matter the game, they lived the good life.
In the end, nearly every player picked up the Soulwalker subclass, if only to get a few [Soul Cards]. Even if the card wasn't high-level or fit for combat, just having them in your base made for nice eye candy.
No one wanted to spend all day staring at buff dudes and metal freaks. And if something… weird happened, who'd be held responsible?
After that, Duanmu Huai and Olgis bid farewell to a tearful Alisa and departed from Carcassonne, wrapping up the [Escort II] mission. In addition to levelling up to 23, he also received a bonus item:
[Purification Badge (Relic)]
+10 Warp Resistance
+5 All Resistances
+5 Seconds of Fear Duration
…Alright then, his fear aura was getting more and more ridiculous.
"Where are we going next, Master?"
"Hmm…"
Hearing Olgis's question, Duanmu Huai paused to think.
"For now, let's go check what cards we can get from the local ruins."
(End of Chapter)